Increasing uptake of improved land management practice to benefit environment and landholders: insights through a transaction cost lens

Transaction costs, related to either investigating improved land management practices (ILMP), engaging in adoption support programs for these practices and/or implementing changes on-ground, create barriers to ILMP adoption. Perceived and actual transaction costs have long been hypothesised as a potential barrier to grazier adoption of ILMPs in catchments to the Great Barrier Reef. Applying a framework derived from transaction cost theory, we assess this hypothesis. Through semi-structured interviews of a sample of participants in two ILMP programs, we find that ILMP adoption support program characteristics have a large influence on perceived and actual transaction costs of landholders seeking to engage in ILMP programs or adopt ILMPs. The importance of establishing and nurturing relationships between landholders and extension officers was also highlighted as critical to reducing landholder transaction costs. The degree to which relationships reduce transaction costs demonstrates the importance of fostering landholder leadership in ILMP program design as well as targeted extension in supporting adoption.